3 in Teochew sounds like “birth” in mandarin
Bedok South Rd.
A hibiscus flower mural on the sheer-face.
10 story half-skyscrapers. Neither glass condominium or bungalow. A hive of houses. Most
would argue, better living than kampung life.
Stacked rectangular prisms oriented around what all Singaporeans call the Hawker Stall. Salt-
smell, sweet-fish, egg-soap, steam and fry. Funk residue -outdoors and everything.
Saponaceous
gallivant through the verdure.
Hazel-eyes and MiddleFish bring their newborn to the 8th floor. Domicile-C, black gate and red door perched on the stairwell periphery. Spirit-way to the five forests.
Plastid floor, black-barred windows. Uncles and Aunties. Mahjong table and tobacco smoke.
We greet Auntie 7 and we greet Auntie Lien (Auntie 4): Bronzed skin, chronological order
brought line-work to bubble all the flesh on her face. Big beauty mark on her cheek
Her smile blazes entropic teeth in lucky yellow. Black hair coils short on her mountain-top.
The old uncles encircle a coffee table topped with beers and cigarettes and pass around the new
broodling of the clan.
Oh, Hazel-eyes and the Captain’s daughter. What will the gods decide on this goblinoid
inauguration? What remarks of impish love?
Amah took him to the temple and named the newborn: StraightandEducated
In the den of rousers, the Uncles gave him a name of their own Angmoh Kui (son of red hair)